What is it?
Offering an ebook that helps your target audience solve a valuabe problem can be an effective way to pick up new subscribers.
This method works is particularly popular in niches like business, marketing, self-help, health/wellness, technology - but it can really work for any niche, as long as you can create a comprehensive resource worth downloading.
Once you’ve written the ebook, the idea is to promote it through social media and guest posts, requiring an email opt-in to access the download.
The Good and the Bad
Examples of how to crush it
ByteByteGo
ByteByteGo is a tech newsletter that specializes in explaining complex systems to their readers, with a view to help them land high-level system design jobs.
Their lead magnet is super useful for their target audience - a 158 page deep dive into some of the most interesting content previously covered in the newsletter.
They link to the ebook from absolutely everywhere - YouTube videos, threads on Twitter, pinned on their LinkedIn bio.
Everytime ByteByteGo post, their lead magnet follows shortly behind.
James Clear
James Clear became well-known by sharing his strategies for developing good habits and smashing bad ones. He’s one of the biggest productivity guys out there today, and a best selling author with his book “Atomic Habits”
One of the things he does to get people to sign-up to his newsletter is by offering them a free chapter from his bestselling book to enjoy via email.
In doing so, he’s able to leverage the popularity of his book to get people to commit to becoming subscribers.
And within that free chapter, he’s sharing valuable insights that persuade subscribers they have a lot to learn from him if they stay tuned for future newsletter editions.
Nick Loves Spain
Nick runs a newsletter and corresponding Twitter/X account about the benefits of living in Spain, exploring the culture of the country and how to move there.
He posts viral threads on Twitter/X that pique the interest of people with regard to what Spain has to offer - but how does he convert those people passing through into loyal newsletter subscribers?
With a slew of ebook lead magnets, of course!
Ship 30 for 30
This brand help aspiring writers kickstart their journey by giving them the frameworks they need to build an audience online.
To make their first impression, Ship 30 for 30 offer this super-relevant ebook that provides plenty of value upfront.
